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Reasons I'm Excited To Go Back To The Motherland

Here's the thing--we're supposed to be leaving in about two weeks for Russia, but we still haven't gotten our visas back...so we haven't booked our tickets yet...grrrrrrrrrrrrrr. It's driving me nuts.

So, in the meantime, here are some beautiful pictures from last year of some of my favorite things about Russia:

The metro.

Well, let's start with the bad: it constantly stinks of B.O. and cigarette smoke and is always crowded and the trains are like 50 years old...but the metro stops, holy CRAP they are pretty. Every single stop you get off on is designed in a different way. Why can't we do that for our ugly ones in NYC?

That's not a museum, that's a metro stop. Crazy.

Red Square

I am so excited to go back to Red Square. I'm planning on taking my drawing and painting stuff and just sitting for hours in front of St. Basil's. Seriously, it's otherworldly there. It's just so different than anything we have here.

This is the entrance to the plaza in front of St. Basil's. Those colors! That gold! The deep brick! I can't get enough.

Also from Red Square (well, the Kremlin, which is right by it). You have to be close to the churches to get a feel for how big they are. They are so beautiful. Most of them you are not allowed to take pictures inside, which is a shame, because they are the most beautiful and haunting places I have ever set foot in.

St. Basil's (Tim calls it the Legoland Church) at night.

The foooooooooooooood

Okay, let's get real.

Russians put mayonnaise on pretty much everything. I think it's a national condiment.
Tim told me a story one time of going to someone's house on his mission for pizza night. They started making the pizzas and everything was great, but instead of using red sauce they used...

you guessed it...

mayonnaise.

Listen, I love mayonnaise, but not THAT much.

Anyway, I'm not here to talk to you about mayo, I'm here to tell you about how amazing their produce is over there. Let's just say...American grocery store produce is a sham and a pure insult to real plants everywhere.

Marina's borscht!!!!!

Borscht is beet soup. There are a million different variations and everyone makes it a little differently, but nobody's (I say NOBODY'S) beats Marina's.

It is literally heaven upon this earth.

(Marina is Tim's friend Max's mom. His parents are the sweetest, kindest, most generous people I've ever met. I loved them instantly.)

Their wooden floors.

This is from Tolstoy's home in Tula, outside of Moscow.

Can I just live there please??

Their gorgeous churches.

I could stay inside forever. I want to draw a lot of them this summer, so I'll keep you posted!

Inside shot of a beautiful church in St. Petersburg:

And Other Stuff!!

The icons! The icons were so gorgeous. I loved every single one of them.

Beautiful late night full moon. This was taken around 10 PM.

Someone professed their undying love (in English, no less!) on the top of this apartment building.

We get to see Max and his family again!

Max has been Tim's friend for several years--they met while Tim was on his mission there. We stayed with his parents in St. Petersburg and I can't wait to see them all again.

Aaaaaaand...the best thing I saw in Russia...the wonderfully inaccurate translation of this Russian menu.

I wish I knew where to buy delisiousli spisy here in the States.

Ah, the old Russian classic: boiled vegetable with polka dots and sausade! (And, of course, mayo. Of course.)

Do you think that's like a sentence? An invigorating speech to animals and vegetables everywhere? "RISE, corn, crab on the stick! Never give up, NEVER SURRENDER!!"

Also, quit whining about not being able to take pictures inside any churches. You weren't supposed to take pictures at Tolstoy's house, yet we see that he has awesome herringbone wood floors. So go be an ignorant, annoying, self-centered American and photograph the inside of some churches! I'm kidding, but only sort of...